Ibrahim al-Makadmeh

Ibrahim al-Makadmeh (1952-8 March 2003) was a founder of Hamas and a leader of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, its military wing.

Biography
Ibrahim al-Makadmeh was born in 1952 in the Bureij refugee camp of Gaza Strip to a family that was evicted from the village of Yibna to the southwest of Jerusalem. His family later moved to Jabalia, where he graduated from secondary school. He later studied dentistry in Egypt, and Makadmeh adopted the Islamist ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood. When he returned to Gaza, he founded Hamas alongside Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. In 1984 he was arrested for supplying arms to militants from Palestine and was subject to physical and psychological torture during his eight-year stay in Israeli prisons. When he was released, he criticized the 1993 Oslo Accords, leading to the Palestinian National Authority arresting him many times.

After the Haifa Bus 37 massacre that killed 17 people, Israel stated that he deserved liquidation for masterminding terrorist activities against Israeli civilians and Israeli Defense Force (IDF) soldiers. On 8 March 2003, three Apache helicopter gunships fired five missiles at his car on a street in downtown Gaza City, killing him. Hamas claimed that he was a political and not a military leader, dismissing Israel's allegations that he masterminded terrorist attacks.